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Monday, 5 June 2017

Remittances and the gendered dynamics of resource distribution in multi-local households

By Dorte Thorsen

The idea that women are more altruistic than men is common
across migration and development studies, particularly when the focus is on
migrants’ inclination to support the family back home or on the allocation of
resources within households. What produces this difference in women’s and men’s
disposition has rarely been explored by migration scholars. A new working paperin the Migrating out of Poverty series unpacks some of the ways in whichgender, migration and remittances intersect with
norms shaping conjugal and inter-generational relationships.

In contrast to most studies of remittances and their impact
on communities of origin which relate to international migration and by
implication less poor households, this study focuses on internal migration from
northern Ghana to greater Accra. It captures the migration practices of poorer
households and examines links between resource allocation, social standing and
empowerment.

For a long time men from northern Ghana have engaged in
circular migration to work temporarily in southern Ghana when rain-fed farming
was insufficient to meet all their needs or they wanted to open their eyes to
other ways of living. Over time migration patterns have become more diverse
with some migrants settling and other categories of people beginning to migrate.
Thus, it has become pertinent to explore gendered and generational dimensions
of the sending and receiving of remittances.

Male responsibilities in the family

In Ghana men are constructed as heads of households and
breadwinners responsible for providing the staple food needed to feed the
family. This bread winning role has been a significant driver of male migration
from rural communities, not least because of the persistent poverty experienced
in northern Ghana.

The findings presented in the paper show that married
migrant men generally meet their responsibilities to their wife/wives and
children. A husband either sends remittances for consumption to his spouse if
she and the children remain in northern Ghana or prioritises their needs over
those of his parents if they live with him in Accra. Unmarried migrant men tend
to give precedence to saving up money for larger projects such as constructing
a house and marrying over sending remittances for consumption back home. Nonetheless,
plenty of migrant men – married or not – show their parents gratitude and
respect through the sending of remittances. Due to the transfer of cash
remittances fathers of migrants are able to sustain some of their
responsibilities as providers.

While it is clear from this research that remittances impact
positively on men’s social standing, the analytical gaze could be extended over
time and to include a broader set of productive and reproductive resources. An
abundance of ethnographic studies from northern Ghana have demonstrated that
men are not only responsible for the household but also for the reproduction of
the lineage. As the rights in children follows the father’s lineage, household
heads have a stake in their sons’ marriages. If they are unable to furnish the
required bridewealth and material conditions to ensure a successful marriage
for their sons, they may forego controlling their sons’ labour and what follows
from it, for example remittances. In this scenario, fathers accept that the
social reproduction of the lineage takes precedence over the day-to-day
reproduction of the household.

Female responsibilities in multiple families

Married women are constructed as carers responsible for the
day-to-day reproduction of the family, including the provision of sauce
ingredients and extra staples to make the meals tasty, nutritious, and
sufficient. Though women and men maintain separate economic spheres, norms
about conjugality ensure that women contribute significantly to household
consumption.

The findings presented in the paper reveal that when married
women migrate leaving behind the husband, they often do so to make up for his
shortcomings as a breadwinner. Migrant women almost never challenge the
husband’s role as breadwinner by sending remittances to him. Instead they
redistribute their earnings to their parents, especially if their children have
been sent to live with their maternal grandparents. Unmarried migrant women
regularly send goods and cash to their parents to support household subsistence
and siblings’ education. Most remittances for consumption are send directly to
the mother, so despite losing the labour of their daughters that would
otherwise free mature women to do more farm or income generating work, mothers
of migrants can expect regular but small contributions towards household
consumption which might be exceed what they could earn in northern Ghana.

The paper points out that migrant women’s preference for
sending remittances to their natal family is embedded in norms about pooling
resources to meet consumption needs and fears that the husband will use
remittances to court another woman. But it is also true that residence patterns
upon marriage in northern Ghana means the young wife moves to her husband’s
household, which may be part of an extended household headed by his father.
Once she is there, she contributes her labour and food resources to the common
good of her marital household. However, this link breaks once she migrates and
while her mother may gain resources from her migration, her mother-in-law
misses out.

Negotiating social statuses through remittances

The analysis explains how migrant women gain social standing
and increasingly are included in decision-making processes within their natal
household as a result of their contributions to the household’s well being.

This raises interesting questions such as, would migrant
women gain social standing equally in the husband’s household if they
redistributed their earnings to the husband, his father or mother? The answer
is, probably not. On the one hand they might be seen as mounting a critique of
the husband and his family’s ability to provide, and on the other hand, their
contribution might be perceived as nothing more than any wife’s responsibility.
Affectionate ties may also lead migrant women to choose to consolidate their
social standing in their natal household and lineage regardless of whether they
are married or not. Yet, equally important, in my view, is the fact that women depend
on their parents and brothers in case of marital problems or if they need
assistance that the husband or in-laws do not provide. Moreover children
cherish special relations with their mother’s brothers which may be of value
for accessing different resources later in life. The redistribution of
resources to a woman’s own kin may thus provide her and her children with more
security.

Men also negotiate status and social standing through the
sending, receiving or waiving of remittances. While young men ensure their
transition to adulthood through marrying, they can only save up the necessary
money if their father waives control over their labour. Possibly this change
has repercussions on the age hierarchy because the younger generation of men
become materially responsible for their own marriage from the very beginning
and thus channel more resources to their own conjugal unit. As a consequence,
the reproduction of the lineage may gradually undermine elderly men’s control
over resources.